Residents Super Bowl bound to cheer on Steelers

January 31, 2009|By TIFFANY WRIGHT, Daily American Staff Writer

5d0bdac458331bf6f67d95773980061e

Many Pittsburgh Steelers fans will be posted in front of TV sets at bars or their homes watching the team play against the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl. But some Somerset County residents got their hands on the golden ticket and will see the black and gold in Tampa, Fla.

Albert Barnett, a veterinarian at the Laurel Highlands Animal Hospital in Somerset, will be attending his first Super Bowl. He will be flying out of town this morning, attending the game and flying right back after its over.

He was able to get airfare and a shuttle bus service through a travel agent.

“The Steelers are going to win and I’m anxious to get out of this place with all the snow,” he said. “I know the Steelers are going to win.”

Attorney Scott Bittner was also lucky enough to get tickets to NFL’s most anticipated event. He got his tickets through a family friend.

Advertisement

He attends almost every regular season home Steelers games.

“I went to both playoff games and the energy was higher than normal, but the Super Bowl will be better,” Bittner said.

Bittner will be able to save some money on a hotel as his brother lives in Tampa.

NFL season ticket holders are entered into a lottery before they even know whether their team is Super Bowl bound. Some are lucky enough to be chosen in the lottery, while others have to resort to other measures of getting tickets.

Attorney Jim Courtney has been following the Steelers his entire life. He has gone to two other Super Bowls when the Steelers have played — against the Dallas Cowboys in the mid-1990s and three years ago against the Seattle Seahawks — but has never won the lottery system.

Courtney got tickets to prior Super Bowls from family friends and this year he purchased them online. He will be attending the game with one of his sons who lives in Tennessee.

“I’ve never won that lottery,” he said.

Donna Schmitt and her husband, Stacy, were not ticket lottery winners either, but their son was. He gave the tickets to his parents.

This will be the first Super Bowl the Somerset County treasurer and North Star High School football coach will attend.

“We are so excited and cannot wait,” Donna said. “I think it’s going to live up to my expectations and more. It’s going to be a great time and great experience.”

Stacy also anticipates an electrifying experience.

“I think it’s going to be great because it’s like a mini-Pittsburgh down there. Black and gold is everywhere,” he said. “I just think the whole atmosphere will bring it up to a different level because you’re being surrounded by Steelers fans out of town and know this is the biggest game.”

He said going to the Super Bowl will enable him to mark something off his “bucket list.”

Courtney said he never got around to going to a Super Bowl in the glory years of the Steelers in the 1970s, which is why he takes advantage of the opportunity to go now.

“I always just thought I could go next year because they were doing so well,” he said. “You never know if you’re going to get to go again.”

He also anticipates the ambiance and crowds at the big game.

“It’s more the atmosphere. The game never lives up to the hype. I just like the atmosphere and being with my son,” Courtney said. “When I went to Detroit it looked like a Steelers home game because everybody was waving Terrible Towels.”

Courtney is both excited and apprehensive about the game.

“We should beat Arizona but there are no guarantees,” he said.

Super Bowl goers could also take part in the NFL Experience. It is one of the biggest events surrounding the Super Bowl and includes autograph signings, games, displays, entertainment attractions, a football card show, children clinics and other events throughout the day and night.

The Steelers and Cardinals play in Super Bowl XLIII tonight at 6 p.m. on NBC.